This One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is a healthy, easy and delicious meal for any night of the week! Made healthier with hidden veggies and one other secret ingredient I bet you’ll never guess!

I can’t speak to how things go at your place, but some days 5:00 hits and I stand in my kitchen, casually looking around for dinner to jump out and make itself.

And then nothing happens.

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Sometimes I even — gasp — go to the emergency boxes of mac & cheese.

I have a bit of a sweet tooth, and while I like to think I share mostly easy, relatively healthy dinner ideas here on The Recipe Rebel, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have those days where I get distracted and end up baking cookies instead of making dinner.

This One Pot Spaghetti? It’s made for Real Life.

As a working mom of 3 kids 6 and under, the one pot pasta is a lifesaver.

When there is nothing else in the house, and the fridge and the veggie drawer are empty, I can still whip up some kind of one pot pasta because that is something we always have on hand.

This One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce has got to be the favorite with my kids.

All three of them are big spaghetti lovers and will easily take a bowl of this over any creamy, cheesy pasta concoction I might come up with.

It’s actually amazing how many veggies and healthy things you can stir into a bowl of pasta without anyone noticing 😉

Tips for making this One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce:

I mean, I love to twirl, but do yourself a favor and break those spaghetti noodles in half. They will cook much more easily and you’ll have less clumping!

Get yourself a good pot — in these photos I used a 3.7L Le Creuset braiser which was recently gifted to me from the company, and I love it for everything from one pot pasta to baked dishes to soup and basically everything that could come out of your kitchen.

The secret to sneaking in veggies (not that we need to sneak them in, my girls actually prefer raw veggies!), is to shred them, puree them, or dice them up super small. If you have a picky eater, this is a great way to show them that they actually do enjoy a lot of the things they might think they don’t.

Variations of this One Pot Spaghetti:

If you don’t have tomato juice, you can make this recipe with 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth, 1 28oz can diced tomatoes, and 1 cup tomato pasta sauce to ensure you get that tomato flavor. It will cook up just as well like this!

If you really like a punch of flavor, you can add a little more red pepper flakes to bring the heat.

Feel free to make this recipe leaner by swapping the ground beef for ground chicken or turkey.

Feel free to mix up the veggies you throw in here: mushrooms, zucchini or bell peppers would be great as well!

Like this one pot Spaghetti? Here are more spaghetti recipes you might enjoy:

Healthy One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

This One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is a healthy, easy and delicious meal for any night of the week! Made healthier with hidden veggies and one other secret ingredient I bet you’ll never guess! www.thereciperebel.com

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword one pot pasta, one pot spaghetti

Prep Time 5minutes

Cook Time 20minutes

Total Time 25minutes

Servings 6servings

Calories 403kcal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

1lblean ground beefor use turkey or pork if you want

1small onionfinely diced

1pinchred pepper flakes

1/2tspdried oregano

1tspsalt

1large carrotshredded

1/3cupfrozen chopped spinachthawed (or 1-2 handfuls fresh)

1tspminced garlic

375gramsbox of whole grain spaghettiabout 12 oz, broken in half

28ozcan diced tomatoes with Italian herbs

4cupsreduced sodium tomato vegetable cocktail

Instructions

In a large pot, add ground beef, onion, pepper flakes, oregano and salt and cook over medium-high until meat is browned. Drain if necessary. Add carrot, spinach and garlic and cook 1-2 minutes.

Add spaghetti, diced tomatoes and tomato vegetable cocktail. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and then reduce to medium heat. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until pasta is cooked, stirring often to keep spaghetti from clumping.

If all liquid is absorbed before pasta is cooked, gradually add ½-1 cup of liquid and keep cooking and stirring until pasta is cooked. Serve immediately.